William Brown was Mad Lads singer, âShaft' engineer

William Brown, 69, one of the last two surviving founding members of the Mad Lads, died Friday morning at Quince Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in East Memphis, where he had been living in declining health in recent years after suffering a stroke. A doo wop-influenced vocal harmony group, the Mad Lads recorded several hits for Stax Records in the mid-1960s.

Although Mr. Brown performed as a soloist and harmony vocalist on such Mad Lads hits as “I Want Someone” and “Patch My Heart,” his contributions to Memphis soul, rhythm-and-blues and popular music as a songwriter and especially a studio engineer continued for years after the group’s heyday. He was one of the engineers on Isaac Hayes’ Oscar-winning smash “Theme from Shaft,” recorded in 1971, and according to his wife, Martha Brown, he worked on Elvis Presley’s 1973 sessions at Stax.

Even so, many can’t forget the antics as well as the distinctive vocals of the Mad Lads, a young group signed to Stax out of Booker T. Washington High School.

“The Mad Lads were a terror — T-E-R-R-O-R, all capitals, underlined, and in red letters,” said Deanie Parker, a Stax composer and publicist who later was instrumental in the development of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. “They were young, they were mischievous, and that’s where they got their name from. When kids know they are getting under your skin, they turn up the heat, and that’s what they did.”

“He was what we call a baritone,” said vocalist Richard Williams, 70, who joined the Mad Lads shortly after the group’s founding. “What I liked about him was he was a great professional. When he was on stage, he was a great dancer. When he crossed his legs, he would kick his leg high when we did our dance. That was his move, that leg had to go high.”

According to Mrs. Brown, her future husband — born William C. Brown III in Memphis, and one of seven siblings — was working behind the counter at the Satellite Record Shop on McLemore run by Stax co-founder Estelle Axton. They became friends, and he convinced her to come to Booker T. for a talent show, where his friends impressed her with their singing. This original Mad Lads lineup consisted of Mr. Brown, Robert Phillips, Julius Green and the last survivor, John Gary Williams (brother of Robert Williams).

“The Mad Lads really were promoted by Estelle Axton,” Parker said. “She wanted a male group with great harmonization to put on the label so we could compete with all those male street-corner groups that came out of the East Coast.”

The group’s ascent was interrupted when Mr. Brown and John Gary Williams were drafted and sent to Vietnam. “Their time in the military, that matured them,” Parker said.

Mr. Brown began working off the microphone at Stax, as an engineer. He later was an engineer at Ardent and at Willie Mitchell’s Studios. Mrs. Brown said her husband and Mitchell composed music for John F. Kennedy Jr.’s Robin Hood Foundation.

He also performed as a backup singer on many Memphis records through the years, working frequently with Jim Dickinson, who once called Mr. Brown “a brilliant singer.”